Russia sanctions leverage, Tibet quake, PHP flaw, Anthropic IPO

Trump holds Graham Act Russia penalties in reserve; Kremlin says three-way talks resume in Abu Dhabi in November

Supreme Court lets New Hampshire reject student IDs at the polls, 12 days before the midterms

On October 22 the Supreme Court let New Hampshire stop accepting student IDs as voter identification for the November 3 midterms.

DOJ says at least 20,000 noncitizens received California mail ballots; DHS had flagged nearly 200,000

Bill Essayli, first assistant US attorney for California's Central District, said October 22 that federal investigators confirmed all 20,000 people flagged on California's voter rolls are not US citizens.

Hegseth unleashes the Arsenal of Freedom: more missiles, interceptors and hypersonics, open to any company that is best

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth posted a video on X on October 22 declaring the Arsenal of Freedom "UNLEASHED." "I don't care what company is on the side of the rocket," he said; the only question is who is best.

Magnitude-7 quake hits Tibet's Nagqu at 10 km depth; official toll 16 dead, 339 homes down, no independent access

A magnitude-7 earthquake struck Baqen County in Tibet's Nagqu at 10:33 p.m. Beijing time on October 22, at a depth of just 10 km.

France deploys troops before Saturday protests after 3,000 shops looted; OAT-Bund spread hits 175bp, widest since 2011

France's October 17 cost-of-living protests turned into riots: about 3,000 shops looted and about 2,700 people detained.

Answering Trump's 3.5% demand, Japan weighs widening what counts as defense spending; it is now 1.3% of GDP

Washington wants allies to lift core defense spending to 3.5% of GDP. Japan's FY2026 defense ministry budget is just 1.3% of GDP, or 1.5% with related spending.

Beijing's offshore-trust tax grace period ends; wealthy Chinese move money to US banks as land revenue falls 27.9%

On July 24 China's finance ministry announced retroactive income tax on offshore trusts. The 90-day penalty-free window for existing trusts closed October 22.

Anthropic eyes IPO roadshow as soon as week of Nov. 9, listing before Thanksgiving; investors push valuation to $1.5 trillion

Bloomberg reports that Claude maker Anthropic could launch its formal roadshow as soon as the week of November 9, aiming to list before Thanksgiving on November 26.

AI-found PHP flaws put about 70% of websites at risk; Finnish, Dutch government sites go offline; what users can do

On October 21 PHP shipped security releases 8.5.12, 8.4.27, 8.3.36 and 8.2.35. The two flaws they fix score 9.2 on CVSS and let unauthenticated attackers run code remotely.

JPMorgan and other big banks block outside AI agents from customer accounts; hand over a password and losses are yours

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said the bank has barred outside AI agents from directly accessing and acting on retail customer accounts since October 13.

Pope Leo XIV needs no further treatment after localized lung cancer removed, will skip Oct. 27 Assisi peace gathering

Pope Leo XIV had a tumor removed from his right lung at Rome's Gemelli Hospital on October 13, in surgery lasting about 90 minutes.